Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Map
- 1 Setting Off
- 2 “Haven't you got a machine?”
- 3 “You never talk it to me!”
- 4 Full of Unforgettable Characters
- 5 “Time to get back to wife”
- 6 “Drink this!”
- 7 “Of course we'll keep in touch”
- 8 “Doing all these Jalnguy”
- 9 Lots of Linguistic Expertise
- 10 “This way be bit more better”
- 11 “Happiness and fun”
- 12 “It's not”
- 13 “Those are good for you”
- 14 Loss
- 15 “I think I like that language best”
- Afterword
- Pronunciation of Aboriginal Words
- Tribal and Language Names
15 - “I think I like that language best”
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Map
- 1 Setting Off
- 2 “Haven't you got a machine?”
- 3 “You never talk it to me!”
- 4 Full of Unforgettable Characters
- 5 “Time to get back to wife”
- 6 “Drink this!”
- 7 “Of course we'll keep in touch”
- 8 “Doing all these Jalnguy”
- 9 Lots of Linguistic Expertise
- 10 “This way be bit more better”
- 11 “Happiness and fun”
- 12 “It's not”
- 13 “Those are good for you”
- 14 Loss
- 15 “I think I like that language best”
- Afterword
- Pronunciation of Aboriginal Words
- Tribal and Language Names
Summary
Pompey was still around, living in increasing squalor in the hut by Blackfellow Creek. He'd been telling me for years to look up George Davis in Tolga, a younger man who knew Yidiny well. George took a bit of finding – he now lived in Atherton – but it was worth it. And by this stage I'd been working in North Queensland for so long that in any group of Aborigines there'd be likely to be someone who knew me, someone I'd given a lift to a few years back, or someone who knew George Watson, or some other link. I'd almost always be greeted as a friend, and given all necessary help.
George Davis had been born in 1919 and brought up by his grandfather at a farm out along the Goldsborough Road. The old man worked for a white farmer, but he was imbued with traditional ways and spoke mostly in Yidiny to young George, taking him off to the bush at weekends and passing on much of his knowledge about trees and animals and legends. George had learnt about Gambuun, small spirits just a few inches high who can warn their master by whistling when a stranger approaches. George's grandfather told him he had two Gambuun, called Banggurr and Baybaguwarr, but could only see them when he was alone. And the two of them – grandfather and grandson – had drunk opium together.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Searching for Aboriginal LanguagesMemoirs of a Field Worker, pp. 315 - 330Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011First published in: 1983